Hi!  Well- I have hard water- so I can't actually use chlorine bleach on my whites!! I use an oxegen base bleach.  I put this idea in here cause I thought clorox department might know how to work on a solution for this problem.

NOTHING I have ever tried will get rid of some of the yellow underarm stains on the guys' white T's.  frustrating- because I wince then if they wear them as outwear! Not under a shirt! I feel bad... I would love a product that can actually get rid of them.

Below is Dr. Laundry's reply:

For the water quality:

It is unfortunate that you have poor water quality--it really makes it hard to get good laundry results.  Precipitates can form that deposit onto clothing when the detergent interacts with high concentrations of calcium and magnesium.  When large amounts of metals are present (like iron and manganese), they react with the sodium hypochlorite active in bleach to form colored materials that can deposit onto clothes—since you said you can’t use Clorox Regular-Bleach you have probably already observed this problem first hand.  The best way to handle these problems is to install a water treatment/filtration system to remove the impurities.  Until then, be sure you are using a good powdered detergent that will tie up the hardness ions; it should also have an anti-redeposition agent to prevent them from re-depositing back onto the clothes.  Also, be sure you are adding enough detergent—check the package for instructions for how much to use with hard water—not using enough detergent is one of the main reasons clothes end up dingy, and with high hardness you should be adding extra.  Hopefully you can get a filtration system installed soon so you can start using Clorox Regular-Bleach for your whites.

How to get rid of underarm stains:

Underarm stains are a big problem to treat because they are highly variable.  Each person’s unique body chemistry combined with his/her choice of deodorant creates pretty individualized stains, and what works to remove one person’s stains doesn’t always work for another!  If you are trying to remove a crusty yellow build up of deodorant/antiperspirant mixed with body soil from a t-shirt, ideally you can avoid having it happen in the first place by pre-treating the armpits on the shirts before washing on a regular basis before stains develop.  Two effective pre-treating methods to try are:

1.  (once you install a water filtration system) Pre-treat with Clorox® Bleach Pen Gel: use the broad scrubber tip to apply the gel and gently rub it into the armpit area.  Wash immediately in hot water with detergent and ¾ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach.

2.  Pre-treat with a good liquid laundry detergent that contains an enzyme.  Wait 5-10 minutes, but don’t let it dry on the fabric.  Wash in hot water with detergent + Clorox2® Stain Fighter and Color Booster.

Unless you have an obvious stain you were trying to remove, you can tumble dry t-shirts with the rest of your white load.  Otherwise let them air dry.  If you continue to have staining problems, then you might consider switching to a deodorant without any aluminum active.

For the stained shirts that you already have, you can try restoring them using a recommendation often provided in clothes washer user’s guides (for crusty build-up).  Here’s a little more detail on that:

1.  Working into a dishpan, pour boiling water slowly through each armpit stain.  This is to “melt” any build-up (a combination of deodorant, sweat, body soil, bacteria, etc.)  It will help if you position the shirt in the dishpan before you start so that you can get to each stain without touching the shirt since once you begin--it will be boiling hot!

2.  Don’t rinse the shirt—just pour off as much of the hot water as you can.  This keeps the build-up in a more “melted” state.  And if you do need to handle the shirt either use kitchen tongs or wear gloves.

3.  Apply a mixture of 1:1:1 parts baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, and water directly to the stain.  Sometimes this is referred to as a paste, but it is actually quite watery, so be sure to mix up enough so you can saturate the stains.

4.  Rinse the shirt, and then follow up with a hot water wash with a good enzyme-containing detergent + Clorox2® (or ideally ¾ cup Clorox® Regular-Bleach once you have a water filtration system installed)."

Let us know if Dr. Laundry's reply helps!